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Recover, reflect, retire – Advent running, day 8

This morning’s run was a straightforward recovery run after yesterday’s race day exertions. It would probably have been at least a kilometre and a half, and consequently at least 7 minutes, shorter without the Advent running aim to run for at least 30 minutes every day.

Since my run this morning I’ve reflected at length on whether to continue with the challenge and in particular, if I do continue, why I would be doing so. Ultimately I find that my thoughts are still much as I expressed them on day 1.

If I were to continue I think my main reason for doing so would simply be to avoid stating that I am stopping. I don’t dismiss the idea of run streaks, those who participate in them and particularly not @adventrunning, but at present a running streak for me feels limiting rather than challenging, stultifying rather than invigorating. I miss the greater dynamic range and rhythm of my typical weekly pattern.

training plan t-shirt #runhappy

For myself I can envisage there being a time when I will run every day, but this will be a consequence of my improving fitness and deepening commitment to running rather than because I decide to undertake a running streak per se*. My target base number of running days per week was 3 in 2012, 4 in 2013 and 5 this year. And to these I occasionally add an additional day, for a recovery run after a race or particularly long run, or miss a day as part of an event taper. The base number could quite easily become 7 days a week for a period early in 2016 when I plan to be deep in training for my first marathon.

For now though continuing the streak would simply be a pointless exercise in saving face and would diminish the many aspects of the experience I have enjoyed to date. I have really enjoyed the challenge to increase my blogging frequency; the last 8 days of blogging have been fun! I’m hopeful that my approach to blogging will relax as a result and I’ll be able to blog more freely and frequently in future.

And of course my run log spreadsheet now counts consecutive running days and includes notable achievements on this in my run summary graphics. And so with my final stats, and today’s run summary graphic, I shall retire gracefully from this year’s #adventrunning challenge. I shall be running again tomorrow.